A small piece of wood
- All through a night in Cayenne, a cortege of striking students ride through the city, giving the call to demonstrate for a fully functioning university in Guiana. The words of the youth Alan, who asks for justice and respect, seem to answer those of an old man who remembers. A former teacher, Jean Mariema, sees in this new combat the specter of past struggles: those which set him in opposition to André Malraux, come to pronounce a speech in Cayenne in 1958. The voices of history and the present intertwine and soon fighting bodies unite, around a poem, around a small piece of wood...
Excerpt :
Palmarès
Festivals
09/2017 - Festival Black(s) to the Future at the Petit Bain, Paris, France
01/2016 - Festivals Indépendant Les Inattendus, Lyon, France (National Premiere)
11/2015 - Torino Film Festival, Turin, Italy (World Premiere)
Screenings
02/2016 - Séance Phantom Un petit morceau de bois, MK2 Beaubourg, Paris, France
Exhibitions
10/2016 - Excusez-moi de vous avoir dérangés, Espace Khiasma, Les Lilas, France
Born in Nantes in 1984, Pierre Michelon studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Nantes and at the Villa Arson in Nice. His practice of documentary widens with an interest in the writing and use of history, colonial history especially, through translations, readings and performances. He directs his first movies in Algeria (Risacca non erra, 2012) and in French Guyana (A Small Piece of Wood, 2015). As an observing participant, he surveys the lands of a forgetful society and tries to reconstitute a common, translated and plural past. “Making history” then becomes a wide practice : from examining the in-and-outs of the landscapes, being an attentive ear for the archives, listening to polyglot voices. He is currently a doctorate in Sciences Art Création Recherche (SACRe) at Paris Sciences et Lettres Université / Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux arts de Paris. His work is shown in festivals and in curatorial and cultural programs. He addresses those various and complementary spaces without prioritising them, which allows him to reach cinephile publics and contemporary art connoisseurs as well as dialoguing with community activists and politically involved citizens.
His movies have been selected and screened at the Inattendus, Lyon (2016), at Echelle Inconnue, Rouen (2015), at the Torino Film Festival, Torino (2015), at the Fondation Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (2015), at DOClab, Hà Nội (2015), at the campus of the university of Guyana, Cayenne (2014), at the Cinématographe, Nantes (2015), at the Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs Océane, St Herblain (2014), at the Friche Belle de mai, Marseille (2013), at the Villa Croce, Genova (2013), à l’E.C.L.A.T., Festival Jeune Algérie, Nice (2012), and also at the Restaurant Municipal Pierre Landais, Nantes (2012 et 2013).
Filmography
Tepantar, 32 minutes, 2017
Un petit morceau de bois (A small piece of wood), 41 minutes, 2014
Risacca non erra, (video installation in Villa Arson), 52 minutes, 2012
Bokor, (video installation in Villa Arson), 12 minutes, 2012